INFORMATION FOR
Four William Paterson University jazz majors—Kyra Cioffi, Joseph Foglia, Nate Tota, and Aiden Woods—won scholarship awards in the 2025 New Jersey Jazz Society (NJJS) 2025 Scholarship Competition. William Paterson students won four of the six available scholarships awarded this year.
The NJJS Juried Scholarship Competition was initiated in 2022, with $1,000 and $500 scholarships awarded for instrumental performance and composition. A vocal performance category was added this year. The competition is open to all New Jersey college students currently enrolled in an undergraduate music program and to New Jersey residents currently enrolled in an out-of-state undergraduate program.
Cioffi, from Rutherford, NJ, won a $1,000 scholarship in the vocal performance category. Foglia, from Raleigh, NC, won a $1,000 scholarship in the instrumental performance category. This is Foglia’s third consecutive NJJS scholarship; in 2023, he won second place for instrumental performance and in 2024 he won first place for composition.
Tota, from Clinton, NJ, won a $500 scholarship in the instrumental performance category. Woods, who is from Warwick, NY, won a $500 scholarship in the composition category.
Along with the cash awards, winners receive guidance, mentorship, the opportunity to perform with industry professionals at the NJJS Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert on November 2, 2025, and coverage in Jersey Jazz Magazine. Judges for this year’s competition were Don Braden, tenor saxophonist/flutist, composer, and educator; Ted Chubb, trumpeter and educator; Jason Olaine, vice president of programming at Jazz at Lincoln Center; and Mariel Bildsten, trombonist, bandleader, and educator.
